Transceiver Connects IEEE 802.15.3c at 60 GHz

SHORT-RANGE Communications at 60 GHz supports high data rates because of the wide available bandwidths at that frequency. For example, the IEEE 802.15.3c communications standard defines four 2.16-GHz channels centered around 60 GHz using a variety of modulation formats: 16-state quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM), eight-state phase-shift-keying (8PSK), quadrature PSK (QPSK), and binary PSK( BPSK). To take advantage of this standard, Kenichi Okada and a research team from the Department of Physical Electronics of the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo, Japan), working with Hiroyuki Yamagishi and Makoto Noda from Sony Corp. (also Tokyo) developed a 60-GHz direct-conversion transceiver using 60- GHz quadrature oscillators. The direct-conversion transceiver employs the combination of a 20-GHz phase-lock loop (PLL) and 60-GHz quadrature injection-locked oscillator. The oscillator has phase noise of -95 dBc/Hz offset 1 MHz from the 60-GHz carrier. The transceiver can operate in all of the modulation modes, achieving maximum data rates of 8 Gb/s in QPSK mode and 11 Gb/s in 16QAM mode for its 2.16-GHz channel bandwidths.

Suitable for a typical wireless communications distance of about 1 m, the transceiver can meet the channel transmit and receive requirements for IEEE 802.15.3c for all four modulation formats. See "A 60-GHz 16QAM/8PSK/ QPSK/BPSK Direct-Conversion Transceiver for IEEE 802.15.3c," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 46, No. 12, December 2011, p. 2988.